This is a multi-site Research Domain Criteria study, of which Aristotle Voineskos is team lead, and CAMH/University of Toronto is the lead site. This study investigates people with a schizophrenia spectrum disorder (SSD) present with a continuum of impairments in social function, from normal, intimate, enduring social relationships, to marked social isolation. However, the impairments in neural circuit structure and function that predict impairment in social cognitive performance and ‘real-world’ social function in the SSDs are currently not known. The proposed study will combine advanced neuroimaging techniques, detailed behavioral assessment data, and the partial least squares multivariate approach, to definitively identify dimensional brain-behavior relationships that predict social cognitive performance and social function in healthy controls and people with SSDs. This study will use a dimensional Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) approach. Individuals will be recruited who demonstrate a range of performance along an RDoC construct (social cognitive performance) using the matrix of analysis from circuits to behavior to self-reports. This study is designed to identify the critical neurocircuitry involved in the pathophysiology of lower-level and higher-level social cognitive processes and social function along a continuum of healthy controls and people with SSDs. The new knowledge gained from this study will provide essential information for RDoC based classification in the social process domain, one of the five RDoC domains. The results and new knowledge generated from this study will also provide the framework for rapid translation of behavioral neuroscience findings into treatment innovation, particularly for early intervention, given the presence of social cognitive and social function impairments at the earliest stage of illness.
Supported by the Social Processes Initiative in the Neurobiology of the Schizophrenia(s) grant. National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Operating Funding. 1/3 R01MH102324.